Life can so often seem full of limits: speed limits, limits to how many items can be bought on the special offers in supermarkets, limits to how many calories you’re supposed to consume in a day, download limits, height limits and so on. Many of these limits are for our protection and safety and we easily become used to these and view them rather like a box where we have to keep the lid on for our own good…

The problem comes when we apply these limitations to God. Ps 78:41 talks of how the Israelites repeatedly put God to the test, limiting (or vexing) Him. God has promised limitless supply and help (see Phil 4:19), but so often we prefer the safety of our life-limiting box to the abundant life God has promised us.

This can be seen in several different areas:

  1. Trust (it’s easy to think we are trusting God when all is going according to our plans, but much harder when we don’t know what the outcome of a particular situation will be. Matt 17:20 tells us that with faith as small as a mustard seed mountains can be moved: ‘nothing will be impossible for you.’ Trust leads us to a place where the impossible becomes possible!)
  2. Fear (so often, fear can be a stumbling-block to us. We prefer the safety of our box, even with all its limits, to the vastness of God’s wide unknown.)
  3. Leaning (so often, we lean on our understanding and ingenuity, but Prov 3:5-6 reminds us that we need to trust God with all our hearts and refuse to lean on our own understanding.)
  4. Lack of expectation (seen so often in our lack of expectation that God will heal us (‘this is a trial I have to bear’) and our lack of expectation that God will do miracles in our day)

Job 11:17 reminds us of the awesome power of God; His understanding has no limits (Ps 147:5) and Jesus has promised to give the Spirit without limit (Jn 3:34). We can open the lid on the box of our lives and inhabit the vast country called salvation where God can do more than we ask or imagine. (Eph 3:20) It may seem daunting and even scary, but this way of living in God’s limitless supply has the power to transform our lives.